Minority Central

Representative community:

Baton Rouge, LA ( Learn about this community | Read Baton Rouge, LA blog )

These 408 counties, many of them in the South, are home to large pockets of African-American voters – and in the West to native Americans. More than 22 million people reside in Minority Central counties.

In the average Minority Central county, 36 percent of the people are black, compared with 9 percent in the avarage U.S. county. These counties sit below the US average in terms of their Hispanic and Asian populations. Median household income for these areas is well below the national median. There are more Democrats than Republicans, according to party identification, but low turnout often means Republicans capture more votes. President Bush, for instance, won about 53 percent of the vote in these communities overall in 2004, compared with 47 percent for John Kerry.

Minority Central and its politics are represented by Baton Rouge, La., in Patchwork Nation.